All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. -- Edmund Burke

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Stay Home if You Must.....But Stop Whining

By now we're getting pretty tired of the whining about McCain not being the consummate conservative all of us would want to elect as president. We've heard all the complaints from you "true conservatives", some of them quite legitimate, and they are duly noted. All of us are entitled to our reservations, but please don't insult our intelligence -- or your own -- by pretending that you're going to "teach the party a lesson" by staying home on November 4th....or that we have nothing to lose by not voting.

On Monday, March 3rd, Townhall columnist Paul Hillman wrote an article explaining why principled conservatives should check their disdain for McCain at the ballot box. It's a good article and presents sound reasoning as to why we should cast aside our differences and rally together to keep the Democrats out of office. His main point is that, regardless of his shortcomings, McCain will do the best job of representing conservatives on the most important issues:

"Conservatives remain unified on three key policy objectives: pro-growth tax policy and no-nonsense budgeting, judges who respect the constitution, and a resolve to defeat Islamic terrorists.

"On these key issues the choice between McCain and Obama cannot be dismissed as the lesser of two evils. The choice is clear and the stakes are enormous."

Hillman then proceeds to contrast some of McCain's stands with Obama's: tax cuts vs. tax increases; smaller budget vs. big government spending; strong resolve for victory in Iraq vs. surrender and retreat; constructionist judges vs. liberal judges; respect for the sanctity of life vs. abortion on demand. In other words.....he illustrated all the things we have to lose by allowing a Democrat to be elected president and arrived at the conclusion that we should set aside our differences and our frustrations and unite to elect the candidate who stands the better chance of taking our country in the direction that conservatives want to take.

The effect of his words was lost on his readers, however. Of the 50-plus comments that we read on the message board, only 2 or 3 said that they would vote for McCain. The rest were angry, disappointed, frustrated "true conservatives" who are "tired of holding their noses" and would rather "let Obama win" than cast a vote for someone who had strayed from the party's principles.

We have no way of knowing if Townhall readers represent the thinking of the majority of Republicans. We have no way of knowing if they will change their minds before November 4th. But we do know that, if they are successful, the "lesson" they plan to teach the Republican party on that day is going to be costly for all of us. Not voting for McCain enhances the chances of an Obama victory, and what Republican can honestly say we have nothing to lose from that? Which one of us can HONESTLY claim that Obama as president is no worse than electing McCain? Regardless of the differences that may separate McCain from staunch conservatives, he -- not Obama -- is the one who will stand for us on the issues that matter most.

That having been said, we're not going to waste any time begging anyone to vote. We will sit tight and hope that McCain will draw enough independent voters to make up for the "true conservatives" who are sitting home. If not....I hope the non-voters who have been so outspoken against their party's candidate will hold their tongues for the next four years if we end up with President Obama in the oval office.